Joey Logano is now the youngest race winner in Sprint Cup Series history at the age of 19 years, one month and four days, after winning the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday. Logano was guided to the win in the rain-shortened event by championship crew chief Greg Zipadelli, whose off-sequence pit cycle left the No. 20 Home Depot Toyota out front when the rains came.

Logano had spun earlier in the race, on lap 183 in Turn 4, after cutting a left front tire. He recovered from the spin and played the fuel mileage card, stretching his fuel run as other leaders were forced to make their final round of stops. Logano inherited the lead on lap 264 after leader Ryan Newman ran out of fuel. On lap 268 the race was delayed for rain. With no end in sight, NASCAR called the event eight laps from the finish, declaring Logano the winner.

“We had a left rear cut down right before we made that last long green flag run and just trying to overcome that,” Logano said. “When that happened, I thought we were done. I was like, the day just went bad, just try to finish it off and get as best finish we can and we made the right move at the end. He (Zipadelli) went for it and I was just lucky enough to be in the seat.”

“It was a crazy day, but half of this sport is about putting yourself in position to have a chance to win on Sunday afternoon, and that’s what we did today and everything went our way,” Zipadelli explained. “It’s nothing more than that.

“We were lucky, but we put ourselves in position because we were behind.  Because we did have the problems, it allowed us to pit, top off with fuel and do some of the things that the guys up front that were guarding their track position, which is pretty normal here.”

The win was a big one for the Joe Gibbs Racing team, as both Logano and Zipadelli reign from nearby Connecticut, claiming the 1.058-mile New Hampshire venue as their home track, making the first for young Logano an added special memory.

Logano had a rough introduction to Sprint Cup competition after being named as the replacement for Tony Stewart at Joe Gibbs Racing. The Stewart/Zipadelli combination produced two Cup championships. Logano’s entry into the premier division so far this season has produced two DNFs and six finishes 25th or lower. Entering Loudon, he had three top-10s, all ninth-place finishes.

“We didn’t take off as good as we needed to,” Logano said of his early-season struggles. “I think it’s just me still lost out there trying to figure out where I needed to be.”

There were 11 caution flags on the day, including Logano’s lone spin mid-way through. Kyle Busch continued his controversial news-making ways, getting into the rear of Martin Truex Jr.’s Chevrolet on lap 176, igniting an eight-car pileup. Frustrated after climbing from his damaged racecar, Truex readied to toss his helmet at Busch as he drove by in his nearly undamaged Toyota. Casey Mears, Jeff Burton, Kevin Harvick, David Ragan and Brian Vickers were among the other cars caught up in the melee.

Newman, who may have had the worst luck of the day while running out of fuel just four laps before the event was stopped, ended the race three laps down in 29th.

Jeff Gordon was one of the first lead lap cars to make the final round of stops and it almost paid off for the No. 24 team with Gordon finishing second. Kurt Busch, who won the race at Loudon under the same circumstance last season and David Reutimann, who won the Coke 600 in May earlier this year due to rain, were third and fourth. Logano’s predecessor at JGR in the No. 20, Tony Stewart, closed out the top 5.

Talladega winner Brad Keselowski was sixth. Kyle Busch, Sam Hornish Jr., Jimmie Johnson and last week’s road course winner Kasey Kahne closed out the top-10 finishers.

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